Kolkata: Worried over Cyclone Fani’s impact on West Bengal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called up governor Keshari Nath Tripathi on Saturday morning, bypassing chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
The Trinamul Congress on Saturday hit out at Prime Minister Modi for calling governor Tripathi instead of talking to chief minister Banerjee to enquire about the ground situation in the wake of cyclone Fani, and alleged Mr Modi doesn’t respect the federal structure of the country.
The Prime Minister assured Mr Tripathi of providing Central assistance. Following their conversation, Mr Tripathi visited Kakdwip, a sub division in South 24 Parganas to take stock of the situation.
He will visit another district, West Midnapore, on Sunday, to assess the extent of damage in the cyclone affected areas. Ms Banerjee later called the extent of damage as minimal. Mr Modi tweeted, “Spoke to Shri Keshari Nath Tripathi Ji, the Governor of West Bengal on the situation due to Cyclone Fani. Reiterated the Centre’s readiness to provide all help needed to cope with the cyclone. Also conveyed my solidarity with the people of Bengal in the wake of Cyclone Fani.” Reaching South 24 Parganas, Mr Tripathi said, “I have come here only to know what is the damage caused by Cyclone Fani. Let me first go and find out what is the actual situation.” A statement from Raj Bhavan in the evening said that the governor visited Kakdwip “to review the situation there after the cyclonic storm ‘Fani’.”
It added that Mr Tripathi also met with the local administration and interacted with local people to ascertain impact of the cyclone and the relief work.
According to sources, the governor is likely to send a report on extent of damage in wake of the natural calamity.
Why Mr Modi did not have a word with the Trinamul Congress supremo when he did the same with Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik may well be perceived from the political slugfest between them in the ongoing Lok Sabha Election campaigns, sources indicated.
Although Ms Banerjee had declared on Friday that she is cancelling all programmes for 48 hours in face of Cyclone Fani, she participated in a roadshow at Ghatal and Chandrakona in West Midnapore.
The chief minister underlined that the damage has been less in the state. “The entire administration remained awake the whole night. We were very worried about Cyclone Fani. There was not much damage in the state.”
